Do you ever just have those moments where the planets align and things just fall in place? Or the moment where you are sent a Green Moms Meet blogger kit for Harvestland natural chicken, pork and turkey and realize all your wildest, meat loving dreams have come true? Same thing right?!

My family is ultra familiar with the brand Harvestland. We do a lot of our shopping at our local BJs and they offer a lot of Harvestland products. As a family with three boys who seem like they NEVER stop eating, buying in bulk is the way to go for us. Before I was given the opportunity to try other Harvestland products we mainly purchased their kielbasa, frozen chicken breasts and hot rotisserie chickens BJs cooks in-house. We ended up also trying their Florentine chicken burgers, Italian pepper & onion chicken sausage, buffalo meatballs and frozen chicken breakfast sausage. The Harvestland product line includes fresh chicken, turkey, and pork products, as well as a variety of fully cooked refrigerated, frozen, and deli meats. Harvestland also offers USDA-certified organic chicken. These chickens are raised without antibiotics on free-range, organic farms and are fed an all-vegetarian diet of certified organic ingredients.

What makes Harvestland different:

-No antibiotics ever. Antibiotics are widely used on livestock in the US. The more we use antibiotics the more resistant those strains become. The scary part is that even if we consume the meat that was raised with regular antibiotic use – it increases the chances that we will become resistant to those strains of bacteria etc too. Brings new meaning to ‘you are what you eat’. Check out this article from Prevention magazine if you want to read more on the subject.

–Fed All-Vegetarian Diet With No Animal By-Products. Used to increase protein levels in livestock feed, animal by-products have been linked to outbreaks of major animal diseases as well as increases the risk of transmission of bacteria like Salmonella.

–No nitrites or nitrates added except for those naturally occurring in sea salt and celery juice powder. No MSG (people still use that?!)

All of these standards are VERY important for us. We believe that conventional groceries are full of preservatives, colors and everything icky. We are label readers, WE have standards!

OK I have one gripe (besides the fact they don’t offer bacon yet). What bums me out about Harvestland:

-Their website states they only feed their organic chickens GMO free feed. C’mon Harvestland.. spread the wealth. Get certified from the Non GMO Project. All the cool kids are doing it.

Overall – Harvestland offers a delicious, convenient product at a great price. Their product variety is great and easy to find.

Want to try your own Harvestland products? Visit Harvestland on social media (links below) and let us know what you like about Harvestland. Leave a comment below by Sunday 3/1/2015. We will pick a random reader to win $15 in free product vouchers so you can try some yourself!

I received this product for free from the sponsor of the Moms Meet program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms Meet blogger, I agree to use this product and post my opinion on my blog. My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of this product.

I had the pleasure of sampling some ginnybakes cookies and baking mixes thanks to the Moms Meet blogger program. I was blown away by the box of samples… what a great selection! I wasn’t familiar with the brand but have tried a bunch of different kinds of gluten free cookies… most of which were.. um… not great? However the ginnybakes brand holds it’s own.

My favorite thing about these products (besides being non-gmo and organic) is how they taste homemade. Let’s face it.. when you had a Grammy that knew how to bake.. most store bought treats just don’t cut it. Oatmeal Coconut Bliss was hands down my favorite. Hello, my name is Sarah… and I’m a coconut-aholic. And they were just that, bliss. The Butter Crisp cookies reminded me of Christmas as a youngling. There is something about a buttery, sugar cookie that brings you back to being a kid. I think it’s the sparkly dusting of sugar ;o)

Their ginnybakes mixes are just as great! I made the ‘lovely brownie bliss’ in my mini donut pan. I am not a huge fan of using oil in any baked goods. I’m the crunchy momma that always uses those handy little cups of apple sauce. (the ginnybakes recipe calls for coconut oil.. which i LOOOOOVE but ran out of in my AM smoothie). Using the applesauce made the brownies moist and cakelike. My boys went nuts over them. As you can see kid #3 was angry he couldn’t eat them all… sorry dude.

As always I try to learn everything I can about the product I’m reviewing.. Their website is beautiful and their Instagram makes their founder, ginny simon, incredibly accessible. I was in awe when she started to comment on my posts about the product! Most of the time when you tag companies you never expect to interact with their creator!

From their website:

“founded in 2010 by ginny simon, ginnybakes is the realization of a dream. combining ginny’s passion for nutrition, active living and baking, our products are a natural expression of her dedication to leading healthy, balanced lives.”

And you can tell by their social media that they live that mantra. Photos of food, life, family and wellness. Unlike most company’s social media accounts, I thoroughly enjoy ginny’s updates. As a consumer I feel better about the products I choose when I feel a connection to the people and the passion behind them.

Last but certainly not least they offer ginnybars and ginnyminis. Peace, Love & Apple was my favorite. They also make Love & Nuts, Karma, Love & Apricot and Happy Chocolate Bliss. Crunchy and slightly chewy made this lady happy on her long commutes to work. And then once I got to work I knew I had a little treat waiting for me later. ginnyminis are the perfect little snack during the day. Just enough to take the edge off ;o)

I received this product for free from the sponsor of the Moms MeetSM program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms MeetsSM blogger, I agreed to use this product and post my opinion on my blog. My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of the product.

So thanks to our multiple buy-in-bulk-and-save memberships we sometimes tend to have a lot of SOMETHING on hand. Right now we’re sitting on a whole heck of a lot of baking soda and vinegar! Together they make the most AMAZING volcanic eruptions every 3rd grader dreams of. In our case… they are the inspiration we need to DIY something awesome.

Our first oh so easy use – vinegar house hold cleaner. It’s such a no brainer because vinegar has been used for.. well.. forever. Not to mention it’s CHEAP! We got 5 liters for less than $4! We’re not fans of anything that’s made from harsh chemicals, that could harm any living thing and that adds fake smells of floral bouquets.

Why vinegar you ask? Well, vinegar has been proven to kill 90% of most common bacteria. Pretty fab considering it’s safe to use around kids and pets.

All you have to do is grab a mason jar, fill it half way with vinegar. Add some orange peels from that healthy snack you just ate and TADA! In a week or so you will have the most amazing smelling orange vinegar cleaner! Tips: the longer you leave the peels in the stronger it smells, strain out any big chunks of peel that might be floating around, and cut 1:1 with water.

Now grab a spray bottle at the local dollar store and you’re in business! Earth friendly and inexpensive to boot!

I work in an industry populated with people who take every word Dr Oz says to heart. There is no in-between with his show.. either you’re about to die from cancer (he will show you 15 ways how) or he’s showing you super-foods to help protect you from them. The fear of growing old and getting sick has made this man very VERY wealthy.. and popular.

As of late there has been lots of debate around GMO’s.. Genetically Modified Organisms. In layman’s terms.. food that has been genetically altered in a lab to be heartier, stronger, resist diseases, etc etc. Recently California became the first state to tackle the debate.. IS IT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO MAKE LABELING MANDATORY? Unfortunately.. it wasn’t. Big companies won this one with barrages of media blitzes. Even going as far as to say there are no health BENEFITS to eating an organic diet. If someone is eating an organic diet because they believe the food is more NUTRITIOUS than they need to do some research. People eat organic because of harmful pesticides AND the fear of GMO’s.

And then recently in a Times article he disses farmers markets, grass-fed beef and compares eating organic as to being part of the 1%. “You don’t need to eat like the 1% to eat healthily,” he says. Craziness. He also goes on to say “Nutritionally speaking, there is little difference between the farmer’s-market bounty and the humble brick from the freezer case.”

We have a family of 5. While a good majority of our paycheck goes towards mostly natural and organic food, I do not feel that my decisions make me an elitist or part of the 1% I buy food from sources I TRUST, sources that are minimally processed and that when available are organic. I support farmers markets because they’re local.. not because they’re healthier. Do I wish we spent less on groceries.. hell yes. Could I shop at our local conventional store for less.. definitely. But I will continue to make natural and organic choices because I want my family to eat the best possible foods. Why would I buy something with tons of artificial additives when a natural version is available for $2 more? To me that’s a no brainer and money well spent.